Author: The Publisher

GREAT BAY – If there is one thing everyone can agree on, it is that airlift is vital to the Caribbean region, Princess Juliana International Airport states in a press release. “Airlift is a common denominator of the aviation and tourism industries that determines the strength of a country’s economy. Even more reason to get all stakeholders together to find solutions for strengthening and improving that lifeline.” On June 13-15, speakers from twenty countries/territories and 22 nationalities will gather on St. Maarten for the second annual Caribbean Aviation Meetup conference, hosted by Princess Juliana International Airport. Speakers – 26 totals…

An armed robber who had the rather ludicrous idea to rob the Carrefour Market in Cole Bay on Sunday came just in time to his senses when he was confronted by police officers. It took a warning shot – inside the store – but it worked. While this incident ended peacefully, we all know that things could easily have gone haywire as well – for the police officers on duty, but also for the reckless youngster with the gun in his hand. There is no shortage of firearms on the island and one may well wonder why this is so.…

GREAT BAY – Police officers fired a warning shot inside the Carrefour supermarket in Cole Bay on Sunday evening to force an armed robber to surrender. Police received a call about a robbery in progress around 6.30 p.m. Two armed men had stormed into the building and took a security guard hostage in one of the rest rooms. When police officers entered the building, one of the robbers just came out of the rest rooms with a gun in his hand. When he did not immediately comply with the order to drop his weapon, an officer fired a warning shot.…

The decision by Louis Mussington’s party MJP to get rid of its co-founder Raymond Helligar because he is, at 68, considered too old is at best a very clumsy political move. Age discrimination in the work place is prohibited, but in politics apparently anything goes. Helligar found a political roof over his head at New Direction, the party of Jeanne Vanterpool-Rogers. On Sunday, the more than 20,000-strong French-side electorate will express its opinion, not only about the party they want to govern their territory, but also about the view of the MJP-leadership on the elderly in their community.

MARIGOT (soualigapost.com) – Raymond Helligar, co-founder of the Movement for Justice and prosperity (MJP) left the movement to join Jeanne Vanterpool’s list. On February 10, Louis Mussington unveiled the name of those standing by his side on the MJP-list; among them was Raymond Helligar. Three weeks later, the night before the lists were filed at the préfecture, his name was excluded from the list. According to the party, Helligar was “too old.” He is 68. “The leader of the MJP has now only one obsession, which has been the same for twenty years and is even more pronounced today: win,…

MIAMI – Royal Caribbean has announced that their next cruise ship, Symphony of the Seas, will be the largest cruise ship ever built and will sail from the cruise capital of the world, Port Miami.  She will be joined in Miami with sister ship Allure of the Seas in late 2018. Symphony of the Seas will be the fourth Oasis class ship from Royal Caribbean and come in at 230,000 gross tons, be 215.5 feet wide, 1,188 feet long, and have a cruising speed of 22 knots.  The ship will hold up to 6,314 guests in 2,775 staterooms and have 15…

GREAT BAY- The name Green Fingers on St. Maarten is synonymous with plants and landscaping, but after Friday’s civil wedding ceremony, the first to take place there since it’s over 30 years of existence, wedding planners will now have multiple choices to make when suggesting a venue for a wedding on St. Maarten. Steven and Yolanda Codrington, the newly married couple who opted to tie the knot in a lush green setting shaded from the bright afternoon sunlight set a new trend and Joan Berkel had the distinct pleasure of marrying the couple in accordance with the laws of St…

Dear Editor, When a government carefully and consciously decides to withhold information from the people or selectively inform them of what and how much they should know democracy suffers. It is also extremely dangerous to excite and incite the people with half stories that we want them to know. A few weeks ago the Dutch dictatorship appointed a quartermaster unilaterally and outside the scope of the agreed procedures and the government in Philipsburg reacted I believe decisively and correctly. They went further and came to Parliament to let the legislature know what was happening and have them take a position…

Dear Editor, It is important to give the public a refresher as to why the process to amend book 7A of the civil code is underway. The intention to amend Book 7A of civil code is to protect the employees or workers. To do so we have determined to establish rules to limit and or eliminate the abuse of the short term contract for functions that have a long term or permanent nature or character. That in order to establish the needed measures against such (the abuse of the short term contract) Book 7A of the labor law of the…

The parliamentary elections on Wednesday in the Netherlands are not only a test for the political parties that have been angling for favors from the electorate. They are also a test for the polling agencies that have been entertaining the country with one poll after the other. But how reliable are these pseudo-scientific exercises? In 2012 Maurice de Hond was pretty close with his predictions, in the sense that the parties that were leading in his polls also turned out to be the winners in the real elections. But there were, of course differences because an opinion poll is not…